Test Drive: VW Beetle has come a long way to reach the 2019 Final Edition

By Frank A. AukoferSpecial to The Journal

Friday

Mar 22, 2019 at 9:30 PM

Sniffles. After so many years, it sounds so, well, final: the 2019 Volkswagen SE Beetle Final Edition. There will be waves of nostalgia.

This is a thoroughly modern automobile with all of the comfort and conveniences not dreamed of by owners of the originals in the middle of the 20th century. Think back on some of the differences.

The 2019 Final Edition two-door convertible model, which is reviewed here, has a padded top that is so tight and quiet, you’d swear you were driving a luxury coupe. You can barely hear exhaust sounds. The old Bugs were raucous, with twin exhaust pipes that sometimes whistled while they worked.

Check out the automatic climate control in the Final Edition: Set it and forget it. The reviewer’s '65 Type 113 Bug came with little vents on the floor that carried warm air from the rear engine compartment into the passenger pod — maybe. Air conditioning? Swing the front vent windows all the way out to force that summer air inside. Notice the cranks on the doors? You got a bit of exercise opening the windows.

Grasp the 2019’s sturdy console lever, which controls the six-speed automatic transmission. Totally not as engaging as the early Bugs’ fragile floor-mounted shifter, with the tiny pancake shift knob for the four-speed manual gearbox. Truth be told, it was a delight to snick through the gears.

Sadly, the Final Edition’s engine is in the wrong place. It’s up front under the hood, where the trunk should be, instead of out back behind the wheels. Plus it’s a 174-horsepower, turbocharged, upright four-cylinder engine, not a proper 40-horsepower boxer with its cylinders reclining like sunbathers.

The Final Edition comes with a small trunk, 7 cubic feet. Bugs had their trunks up front, plus a generous uncovered bin behind the rear seat.

That ’65 Bug also had other advantages: a six-volt battery to keep the headlights so dim that they would not blind oncoming drivers or light the road; windshield washers powered by air fed from the spare tire in the trunk up front.

Armrests? Padded beauties on the Final Edition. Nonexistent on many older Bugs because the German engineers decreed that owners should keep their hands on the steering wheels instead of resting their elbows on armrests.

Though the Final Edition has that six-speed automatic transmission, you can order a six-speed manual if you want it. Some older Bugs came with a transmission called the Automatic Stick Shift, which one enthusiast magazine dubbed the A.S.S. It was so efficient, especially on the Bug’s big brother, the Microbus, that you could walk faster than it could accelerate from a stop sign.

Doggone it, Volkswagen finally went and did it. After all these years — nearly 80 overall and 70 in the United States — the rambunctious and familiar Bug, the modern New Beetle and, simply and finally, the Beetle, will be no more after the 2019 model year.

It actually was thought to be dead much earlier. After a slow start in the U.S. after World War II, the Bug became wildly popular for its reliability and economy. More than 15 million of the little two-door sedans were sold from 1949 until 1955, beating out Ford’s model T as the best-selling single-model car of all time. It continued for two decades after that.

In 1975, the Bug ended its run, giving way to the Rabbit, called the Golf in other countries. But it was dead only in the U.S. It continued going in Brazil, Mexico and other places. Then, after selling 21.5 million cars overall, the last of the original Bugs rolled off the line in Mexico in 2003.

The U.S. Rabbit was different. Where the original Bug had an air-cooled, horizontally-opposed four-cylinder engine mounted behind and driving the rear wheels, the Rabbit had a conventional liquid-cooled four-cylinder engine driving the front wheels.

Though more modern, the fragile Rabbit was not the reliable equal of the old Bug. It lasted only about a decade until it was replaced by other Volkswagen models. But there still were no Beetles sold in the United States.

Then VW showed a prototype of a thing called the New Beetle, with updated, attractive styling that resembled the original. It was displayed at the North American International Automobile Show and was an immediate hit. Volkswagen wasted no time in bringing it to market, and it lasted from 1997 to 2010, when it was replaced by a new version simply called the Beetle. That is the car that we mourn now.

Specifications

Model: 2019 Volkswagen Beetle SE Final Edition two-door convertible

Engine: 2.0-liter four-cylinder; 174 hp, 184 lb-ft torque

Transmission: Six-speed automatic

Overall length: 14 feet, 1 inch

EPA passenger/trunk volume: 81/7 cubic feet

Weight: 3,239 pounds

EPA city/highway/combined fuel consumption: 26/33/29 mpg

Base price, including destination charge: $28,190

Price as tested: $30,690

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